HEBRON HAVEN HOTEL

Carl Preller was the first owner of the property that was formerly part of a government land grant designed to encourage settlers to inhabit the nether regions of the then all-powerful British Empire. Preller was granted 2 495 hectares in 1849.  This covered the area as far as where Midmar Dam is today as well as through to Lions River, up the Dargle and further.  He died in 1870, after falling off his horse. It’s said he was father to two layabout sons, and supposedly buried boxes of gold coins on the property to keep them from squandering it. He died without revealing the treasure’s whereabouts.

​Giving credence to the myth, a box of coins was reportedly unearthed when the road to Dargle was tarred.  It is said that Preller sold the farm to a Mr. Boschoff for a bottle of whisky.

​Hebron then passed into the hands of Col Gardener around 1920.  The hotel developed around the concept of providing accommodation to weary travellers and Lumbermen, working to supply the gold fields with building materials. Early Hebron would have seen these travellers camping out next to their wagons, as the original homestead was the only building at the time.